"There was a reason America's human intelligence resources had dried up like the Sahara, and it began with a lack of guts right where I was sitting now—in Langley, Virginia." (Chapter 1, page 7)

"I would spend the next two decades watching the CIA evolve into an organization where garnering promotions and pleasing political masters became more important than collecting secrets, but back then the spirit of the CIA's World War II predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), still lived." (Chapter 3, page 26)

"I knew next to nothing about the Middle East, but I accepted without a second thought. I'd been hanging around in the frying pan. It was time to jump into the fire." (Chapter 5, page 62)

"I knew, in short, that dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood was playing with fire. These...